After Bengal, citizenship politics takes a new turn

The article posits that citizenship politics is entering a phase of unprecedented Hindu consolidation, with questions about revived caste politics and the political weight of Muslims, who are not a monolithic bloc; it also notes the likelihood that the ghuspetiya rhetoric will persist in border states under BJP control.

The 2026 Bengal election featured unprecedented central involvement: about 300,000 paramilitary forces and an Election Commission that virtually ran the administration, transferring more officers to Bengal than to all other poll-bound states combined 30 times over. EC observers played a key role, with some observers later joining the government; the friction between EC observers and regional leaders helped neutralise the ground advantage of the local party.

Millions of Muslims faced the prospect of losing basic voting rights due to an opaque 'logical discrepancy' process targeting Muslim-majority districts.

A narrative of Bangladeshi influx gained prominence, while actual deportations remained in the low thousands, reinforcing communal polarization without decisive policy action.

The Special Intensive Revision disenfranchised about 27 million people, contributing to decades of communal polarization and reframing refugee-related discourse into a religious identity framework.

Peasant anxiety and structural shifts contributed to Mamata Banerjee’s political ascent in the late 2000s, shaping Bengal’s subsequent electoral trajectory.

Operation Barga, the Left’s land reform program, helped cement peasant mobilisation and altered rural political dynamics in Bengal.

The 1972 campaign was marred by widespread violence; the Congress won against the run of play, but in Congress-held areas the Left’s vote share rose. Practices of area domination, chappa ballots, and bogus voters emerged. Jyoti Basu boycotted the results, and the Left stayed out of the assembly for five years.

Indra Lohar was told to vacate by landowners after the 1971-72 winter harvest; when he offered to pay more, he was rebuffed. A magistrate complaint followed, but police raided his home, and the landlord’s goons beat him; he pressed his thumb on blank paper that later appeared in court as withdrawal of claims. A West Bengal government report later described the case as eroding his will to fight for his rights.

Bengal’s politics shifted from refugee to peasant concerns in the 1960s, a transformation later reinforced by the Left’s Operation Barga.